“We started our yellowtail adventure where the fleet left off a week ago with great fishing. Having done this a few times before, we were apprehensive about conditions being the same. Unfortunately we were right about being apprehensive as there was next to no sign of fish where they had been. Starting from ground zero, it took us ‘til lunchtime to get them located and with luck on our side we ended up having a great day. Most of our fish were on the yoyo jigs but the bait guys also did some damage and it was a godsend that we stayed busy.”

Great Tuna Trip

Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys posted August 23:

“The Indy returned this morning with a great catch of bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and yellowtail. The jackpot winners are as follows:

Many thanks to Harry Alajajyan for all the reels he gave away, and to everyone who made the trip this year such a huge success. It was a pleasure fishing with everyone.”

Special Day

Kevin Osborne posted for the Intrepid August 24:

“Today we had one of those days you hear about from time to time. We got on a school of BFT in the 35 to 50-pound range around 9 A.M. and drifted with them until after dark! The last four tuna came in after sunset and we were all left in awe as the beautiful day of fishing came to a surreal end. Everyone caught plenty of this great grade with some of the guys being really hot sticks. The balloon rig was a guarantee as every single one sent out came back with a fish.

"’Automatic’, was the phrase of the day. Fish putting on a great show all day long kept everyone excited as you knew with each bait that it was just a matter of time before you had a bite. With three to seven fish hanging at all times, we are very satisfied with the amount of quality BFT and Yellowtail in the hold and are going to go after some of that excellent Yellowfin Tuna fishing tomorrow.”

Busy In The Pit

“I can't think of a cool way to start this report,” wrote Polaris Supreme skipper Drew Henderson August 24, “so I'm just going to say what I feel. This morning was making me a little nervous. I thought that our timing was going to be off this trip. I knew the fish weren't even close to being done for the year but for a couple of days I thought perhaps I was wrong. This morning we got our fish on. We were catching plenty. We started with a couple quick stops and then had one good one. The only deal was the fish were on the small side of things—12-pounders, a few smaller, couple bigger.

“We were fishing them because at the time, we didn't know if we’d find the better grade. What if we drive away and we never find the bigger ones, or another one, period? Anyways, it dried up and we went looking again. We all got stuffed from lunch and right when we were feeling that it's either nap time or get a pot of coffee brewing we found what we were looking for and we drifted until the day was done. It was as good as we ever need fishing to be. One-stop shopping, if you will. Bent rods all day and constant fish in the pit.

“The pit is where the fish is dragged back to get spiked, bled, and tagged before going down into refrigeration until the end of the trip. It's the busiest place on the boat during a good bite. We even had a passenger in the pit today helping out when he thought he had his limit. When I told him we were in American waters and California fish limit regulations apply he was back at the rail catching yellowfin. We had a good day. The weather for the trip is so far so good. We're going to make a move tonight and look for that bluefin we were catching last trip.”

Bread & Butter Tuna

Red Rooster III skipper Andy Cates posted over the weekend:

“We had another nice day on the Yellowfin grounds,” he wrote August 22.

“We had to piece things together with shorter drifts and picked throughout the entire day. Decent grade fish, bread and butter-grade tuna.”

The next day he said:

“Good evening, folks. We had a nice day today scratching at decent-sized bluefin, ending the day with 32 of the 30 to 45-pound fish. Flat calm weather and long drifts made for a great finisher.

“Tomorrow we move out west. We are hoping to get bait and try for a few bluefin tuna.”

Tusker Shortfin

“Log another fantastic day for the entire fleet, opined Royal Star skipper Tim Ekstrom August 24. “Bluefin to the west, yellowfin in droves to the east--supermarket fishing. Epic weather--flat calm, fish to the horizon, happy times for one and all. As fishermen this is what we live for.

“We had the easy one this round beginning and ending our day on yellowfin in one drift. Extending the drift I suppose is the easy way to describe it. Following a peaceful night of rest floating along in offshore heaven all awoke to ravenous, 15 to 25-pound yellowfin ready to rock. They were ready and so were we, taking full advantage of their wanton appetite. By midday west was the call; new ground to assess while the afternoon passed by. Anglers exhausted by eight hours of rail-time yankin' and crankin' were grateful for the respite, utilizing the time to catch up on a few z's and revel in success.”

“Bluefin is now the call. To the west we commit. There we will remain until the job is done. Photo today features Ron Wade with a fine example of the present quarry, a chunky, 50-pound-class Bluefin tuna.”

Capt. Potatohead Memorial

“Well the good luck charm of the memory of our friend Dick Uranga paid off big time today,” said the August 24 report from Searcher.

“We had one of our best days tuna fishing for the season today. Wow! We didn’t even have to move the boat until noon. It wasn’t wide-open fishing but it was steady, and everyone had a great time–mixed sizes of yellowfin tuna weighing15 to 25 pounds. Live sardine was the method of choice. Thanks, Dick for looking out for us today!”

Wetness Fails To Bother Fish

Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International posted his weekly report August 24:

“We spent the week dodging the possibility of thundershowers all week and it looks like as you read this, we’ll be doing the same thing this week as well. According to predictions, we ran anywhere from 10 to 80% chance of thundershowers all week.

“Now, that didn’t always mean it actually dropped water on our heads. Some of these never ever materialized other than some big fluffy clouds. Sometimes they were little squalls. On two days we had real gully washers and floods that lasted about an hour, then the sun came out. Sometimes it rained in one part of the city but a few blocks away, they got nothing.

“It really didn’t affect our fishing much other than we kept most of our anglers fishing with our La Paz fleet instead of taking the chance of fishing with our Las Arenas fleet which has areas that are much more exposed to wind and waves. Especially the wind! A little rain is no biggie but big winds--you might as well forget it.

“As a matter of fact, the only day when fishing was really off was a day that south winds kicked up into double digits. For the most part, however, even if the rains came, it was generally in the later afternoon after all the fishing was done. That’s what it looks like again this week as several big storms hundreds of miles to the south of the Baja keep passing by out to sea, but spinning bits of rain cells our way.

Las Arenas

“Because of the threat of thundershowers, we didn’t do much fishing in the area. It was just easier to keep fishing out of La Paz instead, where the anglers had a better shot at good weather and more chances to get into fish, even if the weather late in the day soured.

“However, when we did fish, the fishing was OK. We got into some TUNA! Yes…there were some big boy tuna that showed up. Several guys hooked into tuna estimated over 100 pounds, but all the fish broke off without ever seeing the fish. The area was around the south point of Cerralvo Island.

“As for other species, the fun-sized 10 to 15-pound dorado were usually pretty easy to catch as well as big bonito. But the nice surprise were the number of hookups on sailfish and striped marlin. Most fish either got loose or were broken off. We also got several nice rooster fish along the beach in the 20 to 40-pound class.”

La Paz

As mentioned above, this was our most consistent area to fish. It was better to fish here than take a chance and end up in stormy weather further south. And, for the most part, it was a good decision.

Decent to very good dorado action took center stage. Lots of fish were lost so the counts weren’t as good as they could have been, but pangas still averaged some good counts of 5 to 20-pound fish with some larger in the 30-pound class. Every day was different. Every panga was different. Some areas produced wide-open bites one day, but the same spot the next produced very little. But if one spot wasn’t working, other spots took over. Some nice rooster fish were caught and I was surprised at the size of some of the striped and blue marlin hooked and lost!”

Spirit of Adventure Winners

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